Turns out, putting LGBTQ characters in a Hallmark holiday movie gives you a Hallmark holiday movie
The last couple of years have seen the major producers of TV holiday movies start coming out with movies centering on LGBTQ characters.
Today's Liberal News
RNC Challenger Attacking High-Dollar Consultants Despite Being One Herself
Harmeet Dhillon hopes to unseat RNC Chair Ronna McDaniel and is attacking the party’s consultants — despite raking in $1.3 million over the past four years.
Millions To Lose Medicaid Coverage Under Congress’ Plan
Millions of people who enrolled in Medicaid during the COVID-19 pandemic could start to lose their insurance plans by April 1.
US Asks Supreme Court To End Asylum Limits, With A Short Delay
The Biden administration requested the high court end the pandemic-era Title 42 only after Christmas, after justices ruled to temporarily keep it in place.
Homophobic Protesters Target Home Of New York City Council Member
“There were really awful anti-gay messages calling me a pedophile, a sexual predator, and a groomer,” Erik Bottcher told HuffPost.
Republicans Rage Against Potential Disclosure Of Trump Tax Returns
Rep. Kevin Brady (R-Texas) called tax disclosure “a dangerous new weapon.” But Republicans have deployed it themselves and could do so again.
Against Skiing
This is an edition of The Atlantic Daily, a newsletter that guides you through the biggest stories of the day, helps you discover new ideas, and recommends the best in culture. Sign up for it here.I’ll be back tomorrow to tell you about some of the funniest things that happened in politics this year. Today, though, I would like to offer a break from current events. Sorry in advance, skiers. I hope you are too busy skiing to read this newsletter.
‘No One Wants to Talk About Mortality’
Joanna Hogg is probably the most understated filmmaker to currently have an entire cinematic universe revolving around her. The British director emerged with her 2007 debut feature, Unrelated, which had an autobiographical tinge, and went on to make two other brilliantly quiet interpersonal dramas, Archipelago and Exhibition. But it was with 2019’s The Souvenir that Hogg began to build out an interconnected series that blurs the line between fiction and memoir.
First post-Roe spending bill includes no funding boost for family planning, angering groups
With Republicans taking the House majority next year, progressives had framed the bill as a critical opportunity.
Megan Thee Stallion Is the Victim, Not the Defendant
Daystar Peterson, the performer known as Tory Lanez, is on trial in Los Angeles after he allegedly shot fellow rapper Megan Thee Stallion in both of her feet two years ago. But in the court of public opinion, she is the person who’s really being judged.The critically acclaimed, top-selling artist, whose real name is Megan Pete, was injured in a July 2020 incident that began as she, Peterson, and others were driving away from a party.
We Haven’t Seen the Worst of Fake News
It was 2018, and the world as we knew it—or rather, how we knew it—teetered on a precipice. Against a rising drone of misinformation, The New York Times, the BBC, Good Morning America, and just about everyone else sounded the alarm over a new strain of fake but highly realistic videos. Using artificial intelligence, bad actors could manipulate someone’s voice and face in recorded footage almost like a virtual puppet and pass the product off as real.
“No One Is Above The Law”: Calls Grow for Trump to Be Charged to Avoid Another Coup Attempt
With the House Select Committee to Investigate the January 6th Attack on the U.S. Capitol recommending criminal charges against former President Donald Trump, we speak with Ruth Ben-Ghiat, a scholar of fascism and authoritarianism, and Robert Weissman, president of the advocacy group Public Citizen.
In Historic First, House Committee Urges DOJ to Criminally Charge Trump for Jan. 6 Insurrection
We feature excerpts from the final hearing of the House January 6 committee that resulted in Monday’s unanimous vote to recommend criminal charges against former President Donald Trump. The committee’s 18-month investigation determined that Trump intended to disrupt the results of the 2020 presidential election and played a central role in the U.S. Capitol insurrection. This marks the first time in U.S.
White House Covid doctor: Safe to gather, but …
During the holidays, “people are gathering, as they should,” White House Coronavirus Response Coordinator Ashish Jha said.
Report: Intelligence agencies didn’t move fast enough to collect Covid data
The report by Democrats on the House Intelligence Community says the CIA and other spy agencies “took too long to pivot.
U.S. inflation slowed sharply to 7.1 percent over past 12 months
Even with last month’s further easing of inflation, the Federal Reserve plans to keep raising interest rates.
Fed jacks up rates again but Powell hints it might slow down
Inflation has cooled only slightly and job growth remains strong.
Voters remain gloomy despite recent economic gains
A new POLITICO-Morning Consult poll suggests voters’ views of the economy are baked in.
U.S. economy returned to growth last quarter, expanding 2.6 percent
Housing investment, though, plunged at a 26 percent annual pace, hammered by surging mortgage rates.
Biden, Like Trump Before Him, Derails Effort to End U.S. Support for Saudi War in Yemen
A new UNICEF report finds that over 11,000 children have been killed or injured in the U.S.-backed, Saudi-led war in Yemen since 2015. A six-month ceasefire between warring parties expired in October. Meanwhile, Senator Bernie Sanders withdrew a Senate resolution Tuesday that would have ended U.S. support for the war, following pressure from the White House. Sanders said he would bring the resolution back if they could not reach an agreement.
Four criminal referrals for Trump; Jan. 6 probe releases executive summary of final report
For its final hearing, the Select Committee to Investigate the January 6 Attack on the U.S. Capitol voted unanimously to make criminal referrals to the Justice Department for former President Donald Trump, formally accusing him of four crimes, including aiding an insurrection.
In addition to the insurrection referral, the committee said it amassed sufficient evidence indicating Trump criminally obstructed the joint session of Congress on Jan.
Cannabis Reform Dead In Congress After Objections From Republicans
Lawmakers couldn’t even agree to approve a modest bill allowing cannabis businesses access to banking.
Marjorie Taylor Greene And Lauren Boebert Get Personal In Very Public Spat
The extremist congresswoman from Georgia accused her Colorado counterpart of “high school drama.
Ukraine update: Russia’s shrinking war effort, failing drone attacks, and the defense of Soledar
In case you missed it the last few weeks:
A high-level overview of the current active front. I wrote that nearly a month ago, but nothing has changed since.
A look at Ukraine’s future offensive options. This piece is two weeks old, and for sure nothing has changed. Ukraine won’t launch any winter offensive until the ground is good and frozen. General Mud doesn’t care if it’s Russia or Ukraine on the march.
Unstaffed and seething, Donald Trump in exile is the grifting crook he always was
I’m a fan of the little details in this Washington Post story on Donald Trump’s post-presidential, post-attempted-coup life, cooped up inside his Mar-a-Lago home and resort. That Trump is being chauffeured around his golf course in a cart that sports a laptop or a laptop and printer combo so that his driver can show him “uplifting” news or internet posts between swings may not qualify as news, but it is certainly informative and deeply funny.
As Kevin McCarthy’s frustration boils over, it’s (almost) comedic
House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy is sounding increasingly pessimistic about securing enough votes to achieve the speakership he has been coveting since … well, since before gas prices plummeted.
Jan. 6 probe makes ethics complaint against four lawmakers including GOP Leader Kevin McCarthy
For their failure to cooperate with the investigation of the attack on the U.S. Capitol, the Jan. 6 committee on Monday officially requested that the House Ethics Committee assess whether four Republican lawmakers violated congressional ethics rules.
Those referred to the House Ethics Committee are House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy of California and Reps. Jim Jordan of Ohio, Andy Biggs of Arizona, and Scott Perry of Pennsylvania.
Christmas in Wartime
This is an edition of The Atlantic Daily, a newsletter that guides you through the biggest stories of the day, helps you discover new ideas, and recommends the best in culture. Sign up for it here.During the holidays, many of us look close to home as we remember the least fortunate among us. But don’t forget that millions of people around the world, including in Ukraine, are living not only with poverty and deprivation but under wartime conditions.
Supreme Court Temporarily Blocks Lifting Of Asylum Restrictions
Conservative states are pushing to keep limits on asylum seekers put in place during the beginning of the coronavirus pandemic.
11 Readers on How to Solve the Opioid Crisis
This is an edition of Up for Debate, a newsletter by Conor Friedersdorf. On Wednesdays, he rounds up timely conversations and solicits reader responses to one thought-provoking question. Later, he publishes some thoughtful replies. Sign up for the newsletter here.Last week I asked, “What should be done about fentanyl? Has it affected your family or community?”Judy shared a personal tragedy:
My 26-year-old son died of an overdose of heroin doctored with fentanyl.